White Sox set new franchise record with 107th loss
The Chicago White Sox made some more dubious history Sunday, getting blanked 2-0 by the New York Mets to set a new franchise record with their 107th loss of the 2024 season.
The previous White Sox record of 106 had stood since 1970.
Sunday's defeat was Chicago's 40th in its last 44 games, putting the club alongside the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics as the second modern-era team to have such a cold stretch, according to Scott Merkin of MLB.com.
The result was also the 10th consecutive loss for the White Sox, making them the fourth team in the expansion era (since 1961), and first since 1965, to have three double-digit losing streaks in one campaign, according to MLB Network Gameday. The team had skids of 14 and 21 straight losses earlier in the season.
There was initially optimism at Guaranteed Rate Field on Sunday when White Sox starter Garrett Crochet tied a franchise and American League record with seven consecutive strikeouts to open the game. But the wheels quickly fell off in the fourth when Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor crushed a solo homer that held up as the winning run. New York added some insurance on a Starling Marte RBI double in the ninth.
The White Sox recorded just two hits and five total baserunners against three Mets pitchers, while striking out nine times.
"There's not really a perspective to put into it at this point," Crochet said postgame, according to Andrew Seligman of The Associated Press. "It sucks to say that we've been here before and we've dug ourselves out of it with a win. We just continue to come to the field every day fighting and playing a good brand of baseball."
At 31-107, Chicago is on pace to finish with 126 losses, which would shatter the 1962 Mets' modern-era record of 120. The White Sox will need to go 12-12 down the stretch to avoid tying the infamous mark. The team's current .225 winning percentage is lower than the winning percentage posted by any team in a season since 1901, and it's 10 points worse than the 1916 A's modern-era record.
The White Sox are 47 1/2 games out of first place, the furthest they've been from the top of the standings since 1934, when they finished 47 back of first in an eight-team league.